The second discovery was that the law of conservation of energy had not been broken.
The power of faith originates from mental activity; it is a kind of spiritual force that transcends reality.
Even the most devout monks cannot pray to the gods at every moment. Most of the time in their daily lives, their minds are occupied with other thoughts.
During those times, the spiritual energy produced by thinking is not converted into the power of faith, but instead dissipates outward, becoming waste mental fluctuations.
Most of these waste mental fluctuations eventually disappear, but some share the same frequency and begin to merge, continuously stacking and strengthening.
For example, the idea that "the Mother is compassionate" is recognized by everyone. Even those who do not believe in the Seven Gods or pray to the Mother often find themselves thinking, "the Mother is compassionate."
In this way, when countless people think about "the Mother is compassionate," this otherwise useless mental fluctuation merges together and eventually forms a consciousness that drifts within nature.
Countless such consciousnesses combine to form the "collective consciousness" of the continent of Westeros.
Matthew's "negative resistance" faith line does not create energy out of nothing. It simply draws spiritual power from this continental collective consciousness.
After only a brief study, Dany discovered that the "collective faith power" transformed from collective consciousness spiritual energy had a peculiar effect: it could solidify energy into material forms shaped by the thoughts and beliefs of all living beings.
For example, at this moment, the Dragon Queen was multitasking. One strand of her divine sense entered the space of faith, manifesting as the Mother to study Matthew's soul and the collective faith power formed by the thoughts of all beings. Meanwhile, in the magic tower of Dragonstone, her physical body was testing the practical effects of these collective thoughts.
With a soft shout of "Golden Body of the Mother," a point of golden light emerged from her palm. In the blink of an eye, it expanded into a glass-bead-sized golden statue of the Mother.
The statue was lifelike, faintly resembling the Dragon Queen by about thirty percent, but with a more kind and benevolent expression, and a fuller, rounder figure.
It looked like what Dany might become a hundred years later, when the world was at peace, all demons eradicated, and she was surrounded by children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Old Grandma Dany wore wide-sleeved robes, her hair coiled behind her head, dressed exactly like the Mother in the sept.
This was the imitation "Tathagata Golden Body" that Dany created using the thoughts of all beings combined with the divine power of the Mother.
She extended a finger and pressed hard on the little golden body's head, as if pressing a walnut. It was extremely hard and elastic.
Then, like squeezing a plump tadpole, she pinched it forcefully. It did not burst apart; it only dented slightly before returning to its original shape.
It did not feel like something forged from illusory energy at all.
In truth, what solidified the form of the Mother was not energy, but the thoughts of all beings.
In everyone's mind, the Mother should look like this. The model was fixed by their collective beliefs. A dented-headed Mother would violate those shared thoughts and therefore could not exist.
If one insisted on deforming the golden body's head, they would either need to make everyone believe the Mother's head should be dented, or possess power strong enough to suppress all others.
Of course, Dany's little golden body was far from that level. At most, it had the hardness of wood, because it was not formed from the thoughts of "everyone."
"If it absorbs more of the thoughts of all beings and continues to grow, its strength should keep increasing. If it grows to eighteen feet tall… hehe, I wonder if the Tathagata's eighteen-foot golden body was made this way."
Dany happily infused a strand of consciousness into the little golden figure.
It went smoothly and harmoniously, without any resistance, as if Dany had returned to her own body.
The little golden figure emitted radiant light from its eyes, came to life, and began hopping around in her palm, performing a set of the ninth radio calisthenics.
Before it could finish the routine, Dany's brows gradually furrowed.
She discovered a major flaw in the imitation golden body: its energy consumption was far too great, and its efficiency in using power was extremely low.
For the same punch producing the same impact, the physical body consumed only a tiny amount of stamina, whereas the golden body consumed enough divine power to sustain a hundred punches by the physical body.
In other words, the golden body's energy efficiency was only about one percent of that of the physical body. The efficiency was so low that the "Golden Body of the Mother" immediately became almost useless.
"Does this mean it can only be used for show in the future?" Dany felt unwilling to accept this.
"Or perhaps I can lend it to believers for show. Give it to Matthew, and while he shows off to attract followers, it can also help refine the golden body."
Well, using an eighteen-foot golden body to perform the Tathagata Palm would certainly look far more impressive than the Buddha stepping down from a lotus throne, rolling up his sleeves, and swinging a sword.
In fact, Dany overlooked one point: the strength that a physical body can withstand has limits, but a golden body can grow infinitely large, and thus has no upper limit to its power.
Even if she became a true god, using her own fists, Dany could at most smash a stone wall and would still injure her hands.
But if she truly created a hundred-meter-tall golden body, a single punch could certainly shatter mountains and split the earth.
King's Landing.
The Great Sept of Baelor.
The square inner courtyard was about one hundred meters long and fifty meters wide, paved with dark green marble tiles.
This had once been a garden, with the southern wall of the sept forming the northern boundary of the garden.
After the High Sparrow rose to power and restored the Faith Militant, the garden was cleared and converted into the current training ground.
At this moment, the spacious training ground was filled with people… and the dead.
Coffins were stacked like building blocks, new and old alike: golden nanmu wood, rosewood, black-painted oak, and more.
All the coffins shared two features: they were luxurious and enormous.
Because within these grand coffins lay the bodies of past kings and the great nobles of the Seven Kingdoms.
Mostly the bodies of great nobles.
The Targaryens practiced cremation, pouring wildfire over the bodies and burning them to ashes, leaving no coffins or remains.
Aside from the ancestors of the Crownlands nobility, there were only a few Baratheon kings: Robert, Joffrey, and Tommen.
As well as the two regents, Tywin and Kevan.
At this moment, the one-armed knight in a thick gray wool coat was shouting loudly, directing groups of brightly cloaked knights to continuously carry old coffins out from the underground crypts beneath the sept.
Like Winterfell, the Great Sept also had a vast underground crypt that served as a public cemetery for the nobles of King's Landing.
Now that the Others were advancing south, the coffins could no longer remain stored there.
Moreover, at the Dragon Queen's request, the Great Sept would become a stronghold against the Others after the fall of King's Landing. Even the glass walls on the first and second floors had been dismantled, and the crypts would naturally be converted into living quarters for the anti-Other clergy.
However, the Faith was only safeguarding these coffins and had no right to cremate the ancestors of the Crownlands nobility without permission. They could only pile them in the training ground and wait for the respective families to claim them.
The sept had also issued a notice: if the Others reached the city and no one had claimed the coffins, the Faith would cremate them on the spot.
Lancel looked at the golden lion coffins of his father, Kevan, and his uncle, Tywin, with a complicated expression, wondering whether he should send a message to Tyrion on Dragonstone to deal with the Lannister coffins.
Cersei had been imprisoned in the Queen Regent's Tower, Jaime had disappeared after appearing once at Winterfell, and the Lannister forces in King's Landing were no longer reliable. Only the Imp on Dragonstone was thriving.
However, both Tywin and Kevan had been killed by him. Now that he had become a Targaryen bastard, would he still be willing to handle the Lannister remains?
"Commander, a raven has arrived from Dragonstone with a decree from the Dragon Queen," a septon reported.
Lancel turned his head and frowned. "You should inform the High Septon."
"High Septon Matthew is currently being granted an audience by the Mother. He cannot be disturbed," the septon said, both envious and reverent.
"Ah, the Mother has summoned the High Septon again!" Lancel exclaimed with delight. After giving a few instructions to the Faith knights beside him, he took the letter and strode toward the adjacent hall.
After a few steps, he turned back and said to the messenger, "Septon Marcus, please send a letter to Dragonstone asking Prince Tyrion how he intends to handle the Lannister coffins."
The Long Night had fallen, and the sky was dim. The sept had become the brightest place in King's Landing.
At the tops of the seven towers surrounding the Great Sept stood glass candles resembling lightning rods, each about two meters long. For eighteen hours a day, they radiated brilliant light.
Within the towers, septons worked in shifts, casting holy light spells upon the glass candles.
At first, the light was a pure milky white, like a campfire, not very illuminating.
At some point, the milky-white glow transformed into a golden sun. Within a radius of one kilometer, everything was as bright as a crisp autumn morning.
The explanation given by the clergy was that previously it was the Mother's holy light, but now that the Long Night had arrived, it had been replaced with the sunlight of the Maiden of Light.
The common people did not doubt it in the slightest, because the light now was almost identical to sunlight.
Since the seven glass candles began emitting holy light, no candles were lit inside the sept hall, as beeswax and oil were now used as food.
Passing through the slightly dim Hall of Lamps, Lancel stepped into the Great Sept, which was as bright as a summer day, and saw the gray-robed old man prostrating before the statue of the Mother.
The seven towers with their holy light candles encircled the sept, making the central hall the brightest place. Yet even such brightness could not conceal the milky radiance surrounding the old man.
Behind the High Septon were many septons and septas, kneeling and softly reciting the Seven-Pointed Star, the Mother's chapter.
After waiting for nearly a quarter of an hour, Lancel could not help but tap the praying septon beside him and whisper, "How long has the Mother been present?"
"More than three hours," the septon replied enviously.
"Why so long?" Lancel was startled.
In the past, when believers were fortunate enough to meet the Mother, it lasted only seconds, at most a few words. Even the longest encounters did not exceed three minutes. Three hours was unprecedented.
Just as he spoke, before the septon could answer, the body of the High Septon ahead suddenly radiated brilliant light. A beam of white light appeared from the void, within which stood a golden divine figure.
No, it was not a god, but the High Septon Matthew, who resembled a god.
His appearance had not changed, yet his entire presence was reborn, as if a lowly beggar had been reincarnated into a founding emperor. His temperament had undergone a complete transformation.
A sacred, vast, and pure aura spread from him like ocean waves, making the surrounding believers struggle to breathe.
The most obvious change was the pair of white dove wings on his back.
The High Septon had become a winged being.
The assembled clergy felt both awe and confusion.
Soon, the golden winged figure descended into the prostrating High Septon and vanished in an instant.
"Ah…" the High Septon groaned softly and slowly rose to his feet.
Sigh, yesterday I made the same mistake again, editing a newly released chapter right after publishing it. I waited half an hour this time, but it still changed from an edit into a republish.
I am now certain this is a bug in the Qidian system: if you edit a chapter shortly after publishing it, it gets republished instead.
I won't dare to casually edit chapters anymore.
(End of Chapter)
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